Encounter Jesus personally and respond to His invitation to relationship through conversion, the Sacraments and prayer.

Every life of discipleship begins because God moves first.

Something awakens us. Sometimes it happens suddenly through suffering, Confession, the Eucharist, Scripture, an answered prayer or an unmistakable experience of God's presence. Other times it happens quietly through a growing restlessness that tells us there must be something more.

We begin to realize that Christianity is not primarily about knowing things about Jesus. It is about knowing Jesus.

That encounter invites a response. We turn toward Him, begin speaking honestly with Him, receive His mercy and allow Him into parts of our lives we may have kept from Him for years.

The Sacraments become more than obligations. They become places of encounter with the living Christ.

And prayer begins to become a relationship.

Encounter is the moment—or season—when God stops being merely someone we believe in and begins becoming Someone we know.

Discover the truth of the Catholic faith and begin learning how God speaks, how grace works and how to discern His movements in your life.

Once we encounter Christ, we naturally want to know Him.

We begin asking questions.

Who is God really? Who am I in His eyes? What does the Church actually teach? Why do the Sacraments matter? What is grace? How does God speak? How can I tell the difference between God's voice, my own thoughts and temptation?

Faith moves from something inherited or assumed into something intentionally sought.

We begin discovering the riches that may have been around us all along: Scripture, the Eucharist, Confession, the saints, Catholic teaching, silence, discernment and the interior life.

We also begin discovering ourselves.

God's truth exposes lies we have believed, attachments we have defended and wounds that have influenced the way we see Him, ourselves and others.

Discover is where faith begins moving from familiarity to understanding and from assumption to conviction.

Move from simply saying prayers to developing an intimate friendship with Jesus through consistent, honest and persevering prayer.

Eventually it is not enough simply to know more about God.

We want God Himself.

Prayer begins moving beyond words recited to a relationship lived.

We learn to sit with Jesus, speak honestly, listen, meditate on Scripture, remain with Him in silence and bring Him our fears, desires, attachments, disappointments and questions.

We also discover that deep prayer is not always consoling.

There will be distractions, dryness, boredom and seasons when God seems silent. We learn that prayer is not measured by how much we feel but by our willingness to remain faithful.

Friendship grows through presence.

The more time we spend with Christ, the more we begin recognizing His voice, trusting His character and desiring what He desires.

Deepen is the movement from practicing prayer to living in relationship with God.

Cooperate with grace as God renews your mind, purifies your desires, forms your heart and teaches you the daily obedience of discipleship.

God's grace is a gift, but love requires our response.

Eventually prayer begins confronting our lives.

We recognize habits that must change, attachments that must loosen, lies that must be rejected, wounds that need healing, sins that must be surrendered and virtues that must be practiced.

God does the transforming, but He does not ordinarily transform us without our participation.

We learn to say yes.

Sometimes that yes is enormous. More often it is hidden in hundreds of ordinary decisions: forgive, apologize, wait, surrender, turn away, speak the truth, remain silent, trust, serve, pray, begin again.

This is where conversion becomes a way of life rather than a single event.

Grace slowly moves from touching our lives to reshaping them.

Cooperate is learning to stop merely asking God to change our lives and beginning to participate with Him as He changes us.

Learn to recognize and engage the spiritual battle using the ordinary weapons Christ has entrusted to His Church.

As we grow closer to God, we become increasingly aware that the Christian life includes a battle.

We fight against sin, temptation, discouragement, disordered attachments, the influence of the world, the weakness of our fallen nature and the lies and accusations of the enemy.

But Christian spiritual warfare is not lived in fear.

Christ has already won the victory.

Our task is to remain close to Him and use the weapons He has given us: prayer, Scripture, the Sacraments, fasting, repentance, forgiveness, virtue, discernment, praise, the Rosary, the Word of God and trust in His authority.

We also learn that not every difficult thought is spiritual attack. Sometimes the battle is with our own habits, wounds, desires or unwillingness to surrender.

Discernment teaches us the difference.

The deeper spiritual battle is ultimately the battle to remain faithful—to keep praying, trusting and obeying when everything within us wants to quit.

Fight is learning how to stand with Christ against everything that attempts to separate us from Him.

Learn to live from your identity in Christ, experiencing increasing peace, freedom, healing and joy even in the midst of suffering.

Something begins to change.

Our circumstances may not become easier. In fact, some seasons may become extraordinarily difficult.

But we are different within them.

Fear no longer controls every decision. Failure no longer defines us. Suffering no longer automatically convinces us that God has abandoned us. The opinions of others begin losing their power. We recover more quickly when we fall because we know where to return.

We begin living from what we have spent years learning: God is good. God is present. God is trustworthy. God is merciful. God is enough.

Peace does not mean the absence of suffering.

Freedom does not mean the absence of temptation.

Healing does not mean we never hurt again.

Joy does not mean we never grieve.

It means Christ has become the deepest reality beneath all of them.

Live is when the truths we once struggled to believe begin becoming the way we actually live.

Allow the life Christ has transformed to become a living witness that helps lead others into an encounter with Him.

Discipleship eventually turns outward.

We discover that God did not heal us, teach us, forgive us and transform us only for ourselves.

Grace bears fruit.

Our families experience it. Our friendships experience it. Our workplaces experience it. People notice something different—not necessarily because we preach at them, but because a life increasingly surrendered to Christ begins to look different.

Some will be called to speak publicly. Others will evangelize around a kitchen table, through their vocation, within their families, by accompanying someone who is suffering or simply through the peace with which they carry their own cross.

We do not lead people to ourselves.

We lead them toward the One who changed us.

And eventually the journey comes full circle.

Someone else encounters Christ because they encountered Him in the way we lived.

Lead is when a transformed life becomes a mission, helping others begin their own journey toward Jesus.